Fly in day before or day of sail?

[Jayfo]

We need to fly to LA/Long Beach from Chicago for an October sailing. Does it make a huge difference to fly in the morning of embarkation?

I'm trying to decide what to do and of course, I look to you folks! :rolleyes:

 

Thank you for your advice!

[PINEVIEW01]

Reasons for flying in day before;

1) less stress

2) avoid air problems day of

3) less stress

4) Start you vacation 1 day early:)

5) less stress

6) recovery from a very long flight!

7) less stress

Reasons for flying in day of.

1) save on a hotel for one night

2) MUCH MORE STRESS and a chance to miss the ship due to flight problems.:eek:

 

I have done both and consider the day before cheap insurance:D

 

(I'm flying in two days early in November due to the Thanksgiving :) )

[gratefulguy]

If you want to have the least stress at the beginning of your cruise, you will probably be happier if you get to the LA/Long Beach area the day before. There are some "reasonable" prices for hotels/motels and rental cars are competitively priced, too. It mostly depends on your tolerance for the "what ifs"! Thousands/millions have flown to a port on the day of embarkation and had no problems, but.....

[CLAUDIA&JAY]

I have done both the pre-cruise arrival and day of cruise arrival...

 

IMO, it's a bit better to arrive the day prior versus the day of especially if you are flying from Chicago to L.A. Simply because if anything goes wrong, flight delays, changes, cancellations flying in the day before gives you a nice buffer whereas the day of gives you a very limited buffer.

 

Now I can't say that we've ever had any issue with flying in the morning of and getting to the ship hassle free, however some have had some issues and even missed the ship as I'm sure they will chime in to this post.

 

So if you guys want to get in and relax, enjoy yourselves a bit & have no stress prior to cruising then definitely arrive the night prior, but if you guys just want to arrive and get straight to the ship then arrive the morning of. Just make sure you are on one of the earliest flights that arrive in L.A. the morning of your cruise and be sure to get the travel insurance for your cruise as well...

 

 

 

I hope this helps....

 

 

 

Jay

[Wennfred]

We need to fly to LA/Long Beach from Chicago for an October sailing. Does it make a huge difference to fly in the morning of embarkation?

I'm trying to decide what to do and of course, I look to you folks! :rolleyes:

 

Thank you for your advice!

 

The Rule is Always fly in the day before if you can to avoid delays or cancellations due to unexpected weather. Book the Coast Hotel Long Beach, its right next to the Terminal and they will shuttle you over in the morning. The cool part about booking this hotel is that they have a Water Taxi that will take you across to the Seaport across the way, this is where they have all of the Restaurants and Shops. We ate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. there.

 

Just like what Pineview01 stated above, If we are flying into Miami from San Diego, we fly in 2 days ahead, no stress and an extra added vacation at the home port.

 

 

Fred

[wework2play]

Day Before!!!

[dianepm]

If you book your flight with Carnival, do they automatically fly in the day before? I'm going to Europe and I figure they'd do an over-night flight.

[Suburban Drudgery]

We need to fly to LA/Long Beach from Chicago for an October sailing. Does it make a huge difference to fly in the morning of embarkation?

I'm trying to decide what to do and of course, I look to you folks! :rolleyes:

 

Thank you for your advice!

 

We flew into Long Beach one day before our cruise last year and stayed at the coast hotel. This last cruise we did not fly in one day ahead and we missed our flight to the port. We had to drive to another airport 165 miles away and catch a flight from there to our port. We made the ship within 30 mins of it leaving. We will never ever again fly in the same day. Too risky.

:eek:

[chasetf]

We need to fly to LA/Long Beach from Chicago for an October sailing. Does it make a huge difference to fly in the morning of embarkation? I'm trying to decide what to do and of course, I look to you folks! :rolleyes: Thank you for your advice!

Do you really want to chance it in Oct flying from Chicago. :confused: :confused: I would be concerned flying through Chicago that time of the year. Plus if there is weather in other parts of the country it may mean planes cannot get out of those airports and into Chicago.

[jalexsai]

Day before.

[travgurl]

Fly the day before. We are doing that in July. I feel that I will be able to relax, we will already be there. Sleep in that morning, then make our way to the port. Check out renting a car, it cost cheaper than getting a shuttle I found for us.

[Glama]

Always... day before. Learned the hard way on our first cruise to never fly in "day of". 6 hour delay in Pittsburgh, complete stress, late on the ship, flipping out, etc.... That's no way to start a vacation! If you DO fly in day of, be sure you buy travel insurance. Flight delays, and missing luggage are no fun.

 

I've only ever flown day of one other time, when I booked the cruise 2 days before it sailed!! All flights day before were full.

[golf43]

Fly in the day before. You will not have to worry about your flight getting cancelled the day of the cruise. Or even having the flight be late. This way you can arrive and relax before heading over to the ship.

[98Charlie]

From Bloomberg.com this morning:

Travelers yesterday experienced delays of as much as 8 1/2 hours. Airlines canceled about 500 flights at New York's three major airports, LaGuardia Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark International Airport, said Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

If at all possible we fly the day before. Especially with a west coast departure to allow us to get used to the time change. Also, Nov-March departure from anywhere.

 

Charlie

[LHP]

Weather

Mechanical failure

Or some idiot making a false bomb threat at the airport

 

Any of these can result in a lot of people trying to reschedule on the limited number of "extra" seats available.

 

We always fly in a day ahead.

 

If you book your air with Carnival, they will fly you in the day of. We did that one time to San Juan. Never again.

[osiebosie]

Chicago in October. I'd go two days early if possible.

 

I've seen lots of newsreel with people standing around and/or sleeping in Chicago airport due to weather. And even if Chicago's weather is good, somewhere else it may not be and that can still cause delays for you.

 

Of course, if you do go early, the weather will be fabulous and there'll be no problems and you could have saved that money. But, why chance it? As an earlier poster said, your vacation just starts one day earlier.

 

Shay

[JulieMcCoy]

Definitely the day before.

[deborahjo]

Day before. I get to do some site seeing and pool time in to relax. I can get up early, have breakfast and leave for the ship. We also stay at a hotel that offers a shuttle to the port. Most times for free. It all revolves around that distressing thing.

[dms_cruisers04]

I too agree with the day before. Especially if you can.

 

In our last 4 flights we've had delays on ALL of them - pilot DOR'd himself and we had to wait for another, 1 hr 10 min - airline had to change a battery, 45 min - on tarmac and returned to the gate for a mechanical problem, 1 hr - flight crew late arriving due to weather issue on previous flight, 25 min.

And these were on Continental and Delta. :rolleyes:

[LovetheSea]

We have to go cross country from Seattle to Florida all the time for Caribbean cruises. We used to fly in a day or two ahead. The last few times we did an over night flight. We have one next month to Fort Lauderdale. It gets us in a 10 am the day of the cruise. Is there anything like that to LA for you? This only works if you can sleep on the plane, some people can't. I would not fly in the day of. You just never know what may happen. Better to be safe not sorry. It is also less stressful. You can also get on the ship nice and early.

[Bunkie103]

Just did the Legend cruise on 3-16 with a co-worker. She didn't want to fly in until the morning of the cruise to save the hotel money. I whined enough so she gave in.....good thing too! Huge ice storm shut down the Philadelphia airport the day of our cruise. The commedian from the ship was stuck in NJ and never did make the ship. Don't take a chance, go the day before!

[Caliber1]

Day before, why take a chance?

[5String]

If at all possible, choose flying in the day before. Two cruises ago we flew the day of the cruise and just barely made the ship (last ones on) due to weather delays. Fortunately, we had booked air through Carnival on that cruise and they did wait on us but told us we were almost left behind. The last one we went the day before and it was much less stressful. It also helps build the anticipation and gets your vacation kick-started a day early as others have said.

 

On our next cruise (05/07) we're driving 1000+ miles (each way) and planning to arrive 2 days prior to the cruise. Not really fond of long drives but I hate to fly post 9-1-1, and I am a licensed pilot. Go figure.

[southbayer]

You Always fly in the day before you set sail... You want to make sure everything goes smooth with your flight, cancellations/delays etc.... Plus less stress all the way around.

[hubofhockey]

I'm flying from Boston to Fort Lauderdale the day of the cruise. I have a 7:40 am flight that will get me in well in advance of the cruise even boarding. My flight gets in at 11:10 am and the ship departs at 4 pm. I feel very safe even if Jet Blue has problems (and they have a couple other flights going out that would get me in on time).

 

I guess I'm the only one who "breaks the rule" about flying in a day before. In any case, I guess a lot depends on where you're flying out of and what time of year you're going. If I saw bad weather coming, I might change my flight a couple days before to get out earlier. But I don't want to spend an extra day at a hotel.